Banana Bread Cook-In Featuring Top Chef Simon Bajada

today we are making banana bread Simonhe’s gonna talk to us about why we’remaking banana bread and he’s going towalk us through itso yeah over to you Simon tell us alittle bit about banana bread and whyhave you chosen this dish today um wellI understand there’s a lot of people athome now and it’s it’s appeared to be avery popular search that people wouldlike to make banana bread at home it’salso a really versatile bake it’s veryeasy and forgiving I would say yeah ifyou make a mistake you’re still gonnaend up with a really really nice tastyokay okay how long will it take us todayit should only be around ten to fifteenminutes okay okayten to fifteen minutes so if you havegot some bananas you’re not quite surewhat to do them this is a great andquick recipe so yeah what’s firstokay well essentially it’s um it’s quiteeasy in that it’s dry ingredients andwet ingredients that’s it so we’re gonnastart with the wet ingredients and I’lltalk talk through that and then we’llmix that in with the flour and then thebanana and then it’s in the oven okayyeah so ingredients wet ingredients wellfor the viewer we actually pre-mixed thethe first ingredients which is buttersugar and cream of some sort so I’veused mascarpone because it’s got areally nice fat content but you coulduse like creme fraiche or a thick Greekyogurt and what I’ve done is it’s I cangive you the measurements now it’s withthe yogurt it’s 80 grams the sugar is150 and the sugar is soft brown sugar soit’s it’s this really nice soft richalmost like a damira but it’s it’s gotthatyep that I’m trying to think of the namemolasses II flavor okay so that getsmixed in with the butter and the creamand the reason you do that is becauseyou want volume so you can see here Ican show ya you can see here they’remixing this this room-temperature butterand the sugar what it does is the sugarbreaks down and it puts air into the mixso you get this nice volume and thathelps hold up the cake when you’rebaking and how long did you mix it’squite a while so I’ve used theattachment on the stand mixer being thewhisk balloon attachment and this andthis was four minutes around fourminutes now you can use a hand mixer howyou know just a normal one at home butit will take a bit longer but reallywhat you’re looking for is somethinglike like this and look it can split soif you use Greek yogurt or creme fraicheit might not have this volume but itdoesn’t matter it’s still gonna make adelicious baked when you say split whenit comes apart yeah it kind of itC you can see this is all nice anduniform but it might be a bit moregrainy and granular okay yeah it’s stillgonna work so don’t worry okay can wetry something now when I was growing upthis is always the best bit when my mumused to make a cake and I get the mixfantastic and it’s been a long timesince I had banana bread so I’m reallylooking forward to this one is the lasttime that you quite recently by remembermy grandma made all the time yeah yeahit’s it’s great because it can sit for afew days you know so it stays moist thenand you can make various densities likeyou can make one that’s a little morebready and less sweet and that’s reallygood if you want to keep it to toast andbecause it’s really yummy put somebutter on it but this one actually is abit more moist and and dense so probablynot perfect for toasting but certainlyafter a few days the real bit okay sothat’s we’ve mixed it what happens nextyeah so we’ve got the mix so then it’simportant to put the eggs in and withthe eggs a tip I have here is that youmight it’s best rather than just breakthem in when it’s meor with the hand mixer is to mix itfirst in a bowl and gradually add itbecause that’s another thing that can gowrong if you just tip it all in it mightit might break this nice volume that wehave here so I’ll do that now okay sothis is the AEG I’m cooking we’relearning how to make banana bread and Ihave to say that the mix that I tastedwas absolutely delightful it almosttasted the sugar yeah I’m sure yeah thisis another great recipe where you canhave a lot of substitutes so and evenyou know if you’re sure I’m playingwhite flour you can use wholemeal flouryou could you can really be flexiblewith the ingredients but yes if you’regluten intolerant you could use or veganyou can use the the chickpea water inplace of eggs you can use chia you canuse a number of different things tosubstitute the the ingredients so I’mjust gonna mix this in here with my handbecause um to save the viewers with thelab machine so I’ll just do that hereactually Tom you might want to hold thisokay you know using the mache surewell this is this is all you want to dois just get the meats into the get theeggs into the mix if you are using amixer or a hand mixer in the matter ofseconds I probably should have done alittle more gradually but and now thisis also the time where you would addyour flexible ingredients so you knowwalnuts are fantasticmaybe almonds any any nuts sunflowerseeds I’m gonna use coconut okay whyjust because it’s it’s got that richoiliness thatwhen it cooks in adds even more moistureto the baked so it’s really nice yeahand adds a great flavor I mean bananaand coconut are really good together sowe’ve got the butter cream and the sugarmixed the eggs have gone in and now haswent off with the coconut so and fruitfor example or chocolate chips they alsogo in about now so I should knock thosewell is it very important that I yousaid that this is very forgiving yeahreally it’s just wet and then and thendry so now that that and then finallythe banana bananas the last very commoningredients yeah right so if you arejust joining us this at the AEG homecooking if you have any questions forSimon about making banana bread any ofthe type of things that you personallywant to see in it then please drop us anote and we’ll pass those on and getback to you so yeah thanks anotherimportant thing to mention we’re makingthe banana bread is that the bananas arereally nice and ripe you can even beriper than this you know there’s reallyugly bananas that are kind of sitting athome that that you know one might wantto peel and eat themselves they’reperfect and the reason for that isthey’re sweeter and they also have gotmore banana flavor so they’re perfect soit’s a really great way to use up thebananas at home in fact actually I did alittle bit of research before we came tomake this banana bread and according toa reliable source on the internet thisis first brought into home production inthe 1930s with people who exactly didn’twant to throw away ripe bananas theywere looking for something to combine itinto a sweet dish so banana bread wasborn in the 1930s and has been popularever since and I remember making it atschool and I’m really looking forward totrying this one with your addedingredients I don’t think I’ve had itwith coconut about yeah and that otheringredient I’ve added to make it just alittle twist is a spice cardamon youcould also use cinnamon but I lovecardamom banana together so so that isalso mixed in and I’ll show you thatwith the dry ingredients okay and you’rejust mashing these dishes are regularmeasure you’re mashing the banana okayyeah so if they’re ripe they’re gonna bereally soft you could even use a forkyou don’t need a masher we’ve got thislovely master here so that’s perfectB and you don’t want to take it too faryou just want to take it enough of itthat they kind of released a bit ofliquid they no longer dry so you’ve seenlike really fast this is now quite wetand you don’t want it to be too toobroken up either because you want thechunks taste the banana in the cake yeahso that’s ready so now we have dryingredients now that’s just 150 grams offlour one and a half teaspoons of bakingpowder and the cardamom which I talkedjust talked about so we’ll get those inwe actually have a question okayquestion yeah so Thank You Daniel hisquestion is can the bananas ever be tooripe is it possible to have two rightfanaticism when there’s something wrongwith the flavors that’s your rightful isthat muscle I’ve never taken them thatfar to be honest but um yeah I thinkwhen you come to a point if you pickedup the banana and this the skin kind offell away that’s too right okay but ifit’s holding form and even though it’squite black on the outside I thinkthey’re perfect okay well maybe youdon’t even try this at home and see howlong he can make banana last before hedecides to incorporate it into his dishthat would be great so this is ateaspoon and a half of cardamom going inground cardamomif you had the seeds you could breakthem up with a mortar and pestle and usethose two or like I said you could usecinnamon and then also a teaspoon and ahalf of baking powder and what does thewhat are these ingredients do why shouldI use those the baking powder isimportant to give the rise in the cakeI keep thinking with baking one butwe’re not we’ve got it here and thesespices obviously for the flavor yeah soyou just need to mix those together andthat was super quick super quick okayyou just want to get the the soda bakingpowder through and the spice through andit’s ready to add into here yeah andthen the banana and then and then we’regonna lie in a tin with baking paper soI’ll get that ready umso let’s do that I’m gonna use again ifyou were using this stand mixer theflour would go in just for a quicksecond just to get it through or ifyou’re using a hand with the same but umbecause all we really want to do is getthis through evenly if you were to overwhisk this the gluten in the flour makesit a bit tough and doughy so you don’twant to mix it in too much how do youknow it’ll go a bit black clanging okayyou know like some doughnuts yeah andlike almost like a mashed potato ifyou’re over with the mashed potato canalso go like that okay we have anotherquestion from you Alice thank you somuchyou’ve got bananas although any othersort of fruits that you could make thisspread a little sure yeah I actuallythink pears are perfect for banana breadrecipe because they’ve got like a ripepears got a similar texture and andgreat flavors so and there’s a bitsofter than Apple’s for example so I’veactually quite often made yeahyou combine them yeah it’s very flexiblethis recipe unlike a lot of bakingrecipes like I said quite forgiving Irecently heard yeah that you can relatebaking if you’re referencing music youcan relate baking to classical becausethere’s no deviation whereas homecooking and cooking in the restaurantit’s a bit more jazz I’m gonna preachhow to live exactly yeahso that was really easy and that that’salready combined someone yeah obviouslyit’d be much easier with a mixer butthat’s in and then straight in with thebanana so again it’s just a gradualmixer I’m gonna use the spatula for thatand how long you gonna mix this reallyjust until it’s combined so show thecamera what we want at the end okay thisis the the AEG home cooking we’re makinga banana bread family you can make itwith pears as well we’ve added coconutbut you can ad-lib you can add whateveryou want in terms of nuts to personalizeyour own tastes if you have anyquestions for us or anything you’d liketo know from Simon our chef please don’thesitate to write in and I also say thatthis is going out live in Russia GreeceNordiques Spain and the UK so thank youfor joining us so now would be great toadd some nuts or chocolate chips as wellyou can just stir them through becausethat’s ready this is the perfectconsistency that you would like to havehe’s saying that in the camera excellentok so now we’re going to prepare the tintake this out now just a quick tip mywife told me the other day actuallyyou went using baking paper you can cutit and get it all nice and perfect but anice way now it’s easier to shape by anyother round it is best to have a longform because it makes for a more evencooking okay but you could use a roundlike an okay it’s just gonna you’regonna end up with the middle of the cakebeing a little less cooked than that theoutside and that’s because it’s quite awet mix because of the fruit so that’swhy loaf things are quite commonly usedit’s a more even cooking so in with themixture and this fix fits that formperfectly is there ain’t gonna be anyleftyeah they know I think it’s a good sizefor this form well if I had any leftwhat could I keep it in the fridge Ithink you’d want to bake it quite soonbut yeah you could make a muffin put itin a muffin tin some small small amountsyeah I mean that’s a good tip as wellright if you’re making muffins theybecome quite dry but this because it’sgot the fruits and it will retain themoisture yeah this is really good formaking muffins as wellyeah I might borrow you it you wereTalat just to get it even so that’s itthat’s quite nice and level doesn’t needto be perfect but it’s just nice andeven thank you we’ve used this brownsugar here yeah what if you got that’sfine totally fine yeah it’ll the flavorwon’t be is as deep but it’s perfect touse that even if you have like icingsugar and you’re running low on whitesugar you could you could like combinethose tasting that mix it yeah no youwon’t it won’t be that flavor but stillit’s it’s gonna make a really nice breadokayand if I was at home and I was making anumber of these hmm I begged them couldI freeze it afterwards can I freeze itno I think it would freeze quite wellthis yeah okay yeah that was a questionfrom Jana so thank you so much if youhave any other questions then pleasesend them in and we will do our best toanswer them and what’s the next stepwell I’m just gonna give it a nicegarnish decoration on top ones just forlooks and the other ones for flavorbecause first I’m going to start withthe banana so just indicating it’s abanana cake or banana bread so I like tojust put a nice thin strip across thetop is this essential not essential butit’s a nice garnish so yeah yeah you’reright people will know itthere’s a an obvious visual clue sureyeah I’ve just talked a banana there anddone some long long slit and you can seethat there and I’m also gonna use somebrown sugar actually I’ll go first withthe coconut that just gives some nicetoasted coconut on top also telling youwhat’s in the bait again could I add anyother anything else at this stage yourscoconut kind of the optimal ingredientoh you could definitely use some choppednutsyeah that would wear really well becausethey’ll toast a bit nicer if they’re onthe top rather than in the bait cuz youget different different flavor up downand then mid just the extra bit of sugarthat’s just that should melt down youcan see in the finished one here it’sjust melted a little and given a nicesweet crust on top so that’s it that’sready yeah so the oven is preheated to180just your standard temperature 180Celsius yeah that’s on fat and it’llbake for around one hour yeah and theway to check or what can you show theway to check that it’s ready at the endis that you put a cake tester in dry inthe middle what is the cake tester caketester is like a small straight pin thatgoes into the middle and if you pull itout there shouldn’t be any of the batteron it so could I use the knife you coulduse a knife okay if you don’t have acake tester yeah I’m happy to do that sothat’s now in for one hour but we didmake this one before filming so we mightjust serve that up have a look insidesee what it’s like okay so this thisparticular cake was made what an hourago yeah okay yeah and another thingthat’s important iscomes out of the oven it’s best to leaveit to cool down in the tin just so itkeeps its shape yeah until it’scompletely killed do I have to waituntil I serve it half an hour it’spretty hard to wait because of the smellyeah oh here you can smell it in herenow it’s amazing yeah but um yeah if youcan resist the temptation to cut into itit’s gonna it’s gonna hold togetherbetter and it’ll keep better as wellbecause if you kind of open while it’sstill warm you’re gonna release all thesteam and it’ll end up drying up a bitinside so it’s better to let cool downin its own shelf so this is actually youstill feel it’s quite warm but um itwould ideally this would be like anotherokay we have another question somebodyhas a steam oven an oven with a steamfunction on it could they cook withsteam would that work Oh be honest Ihaven’t baked with steam I think hecouldn’t yeah yeah I think the moisturewould be okay um yeah actually I I bakedwith Steven yes okay Oh excellent andthe great thing about baking with steamis that you get the rice yeah and thefluffiness of the texture so you get theexterior which is crispy and the rise soyes you absolutely could make a mistakeexcellent together which we’ve come to apositive so yeah you can bake a mastiit’s also forgiving when you bake itwith steam as hard as to get it yeah Iwould to burn the top I imagine yeah ohthat’s greatyeah and I mention there is quite a bitof steam in here already just because ofthe wet mixture so that make sense okayI have to say this smells absolutelyfantastic and we’re nearing the end ofus relatively short Asian cooking we’vemade banana bread it has real smells ofcaramelized sugar the banana the fruitand it smells absolutely fantasticand I didn’t have any lunch so I’mreally looking forward to just tryingthis it’s actually really havingrestraint here to stop from dying we areabout yeahso what’s what are you serving it Iwanted to make this a little a littlemore inviting so I what I’ve done isI’ve made a mascarpone espressomascarpone cream here so it’s reallysimple it’s just mascarpone with a shotof espresso that’s been chilled and justmixed through I’m just going to servethat on this side like that and thenalso I toasted some coconut just to giveus some more nutty flavor why do you getthe shot of espresso from like a localstore or did you have a coffee machineyeah if you have one at home you canjust make your own or even if you havelike a drip you could just make a reallystrong coffee yeah so you can seemascarpone’s quite damn thick to startwith but with a little mixture throughit it’s it’s quite a nice beautifulcream texture now and if there’s alittle bit of sugar in okay yeah sothat’s ready to try when you begin okayso this is very fresh out of the ovenhalf an hour ago I mean it looksabsolutely fantastic I mean one hour andit yeah it looks and you cut in there’sa crispness to it yeah it’s definitelyon pop yeah crispy the great thing isabout the the sugar they provide youknow a caramelize it provides crisppeanuts and then there’s a piece ofbanana here some coconut so you I’mlooking forward to enjoying the varietyof texture especially with thismascarpone and coffee cream so now I’mgonna try itand again it smells up to fantastic nowinner excellent Navis people my mouthfull sorry something uh people that withbut absolutely fantastic great a realmix of texture that mascarpone added toit yeah absolutely about 15 minutes toprepare really quick really worth it agreat way of using up your old bananasalthough they don’t have to be old butit really helps when your bananas areripe to mash them in you could use pearyou could add nuts the great thing aboutthis mix is there’s such a variety ofthings that you can do with it check outyour cupboard to see where you’ve gotsome chops almonds or something that youwant to add into it and as you startedbeginning it’s such a forgiving dishthat you can’t really go wrong with itespecially if you make you esteem that’snot necessary it’s really great to cometogether with all of these ingredientsthat you have lying around at home andadd a little bit of panache with theirmascarpone and the coffee so what Ireally like about this other mix ofingredients and you get a taste ofsomething that is completely new the waythat you’ve added it but everything istotally accessible I love it I’mdefinitely gonna try it Simon thank youso much thank you perfect thanks viewersthank you yeah try it like it perhapstell us what you thought about it andjoin us next week where we have anotherAEG home cooking thanks so much and yeahenjoy your weekend and see you next timebye